Nightscape by Kristel S. Oxley-Johns
Jan. 24th, 2021 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitewriterI was browsing through the Adventure section of The Annex archives for my next long read. Whilst pursuing "best of's" and "top tens" lists are good fun: my tastes and desires? aren't nearly going to always be similar to the next person who likely hasn't read everything in the archives. Word of mouth is typically accurate, I keep thinking perhaps there is a gem that is not frequently spoken of that's hiding somewhere in an archive.
Published on 3rd May 1996 and at novel length (350k text file).
Meaning it was likely written somewhere in 1995.
So I viewed the fic through the lens of season 3.
It's located here:
Adventure page at The Annex
Just scroll down to Nightscape.
The synopsis:
As Mulder and Scully's marriage nears the one-year anniversary, they are called to investigate a series of kidnappings and murders involving women who have had abduction experiences similar to Scully's. When Scully disappears one night, it is a race against the clock for Mulder to find her before she--and their unborn child-- become the next victims.
Based on this interesting synopsis I decided to give it ago.
The amount of honey-coated- drivel that Kristel places on the marriage between M and S honestly, made me want to hurl so much I was sniggering for most of the fic. It's probably similar to a Mill's and boon, but without the bodice-ripping sections. So that put it in a unique place of poorly characterised, unrealistic (and at times boring) relationship. There was perhaps too much description, and too much attention to minute details.
Furthermore, Samantha is found and normal and lives with her own family; Mulder and his mother have what is described as a normal relationship and the only angst here family wise (and we know X-files is full of angst in every direction) is that Scully is still reeling about her sister's death (the main nod to canon in this story). Kristel spends a lot of time detailing the sugar drenched marriage with long winded laments regarding why M and S decided against starting a family (because, that is the primary reason of marriage, -- very true in the 90s and, still now, 30 years later even amongst my non-Christian friends) is all related to her abduction and whatever "they did to her".
Except that despite birth control it happened anyway.
Scully gets kidnapped and is stuck in some sort of bunker, at 12 weeks pregnant, for 6 weeks (this is probably the best part of the story, where I stopped speed reading and actually read properly) - Whilst M tries to investigate the case (terribly, and he is in some drivelled mess similar to this other babyfic I was reading where S ran away to San Fransico because of another pregnancy debaucle-- and he slept on the floor of her apartment for 2 weeks, waiting for some sign of here whereabouts *huge eye roll* I stopped reading at that part cause it was just.. bad writing and beyond OOC). It's currently unfinished and somehow has >300 kudos. *where's that vomit bag* ?
There's an original character, another agent added to the x-files team but his presence is merely a convenience more than anything and he's trotted out about three times in the story.
The story doesn't end with Scully being found, it continues through the aftermath of her kidnapping (in sappy detail) with a couple of very would have been hot scenes with a lot of emotion should I have been actually invested in the story - and instead was overall underwhelming.
The English itself, was fine. There were proper sentence structures and grammar (defiantly surpassing my own). The overall storyline, became bland and not relatable in all the sugar. I'm sure - based on the length/number of chapters, a lot of people enjoyed this story. However sugarly relationships, and overly descriptive details about what was clearly the author's impassioned cause (marriage for children) just isn't for me.
I'm impressed I finished the whole story. I read it because I felt like I could not review it if I did not read the whole thing through.
There were some good bits.
I liked Scully being in the bunker and trying to sympathise with the kidnapper and her figuring out how she would escape.
Maybe I should change that statement to "there was one good bit".
Score card:
Just not for me.
I wonder if I had read this story in my teens and what I thought of it then. It's quite possible that I have actually read this one before, but unlikely that I wrote about it anywhere.
Published on 3rd May 1996 and at novel length (350k text file).
Meaning it was likely written somewhere in 1995.
So I viewed the fic through the lens of season 3.
It's located here:
Adventure page at The Annex
Just scroll down to Nightscape.
The synopsis:
As Mulder and Scully's marriage nears the one-year anniversary, they are called to investigate a series of kidnappings and murders involving women who have had abduction experiences similar to Scully's. When Scully disappears one night, it is a race against the clock for Mulder to find her before she--and their unborn child-- become the next victims.
Based on this interesting synopsis I decided to give it ago.
The amount of honey-coated- drivel that Kristel places on the marriage between M and S honestly, made me want to hurl so much I was sniggering for most of the fic. It's probably similar to a Mill's and boon, but without the bodice-ripping sections. So that put it in a unique place of poorly characterised, unrealistic (and at times boring) relationship. There was perhaps too much description, and too much attention to minute details.
Furthermore, Samantha is found and normal and lives with her own family; Mulder and his mother have what is described as a normal relationship and the only angst here family wise (and we know X-files is full of angst in every direction) is that Scully is still reeling about her sister's death (the main nod to canon in this story). Kristel spends a lot of time detailing the sugar drenched marriage with long winded laments regarding why M and S decided against starting a family (because, that is the primary reason of marriage, -- very true in the 90s and, still now, 30 years later even amongst my non-Christian friends) is all related to her abduction and whatever "they did to her".
Except that despite birth control it happened anyway.
Scully gets kidnapped and is stuck in some sort of bunker, at 12 weeks pregnant, for 6 weeks (this is probably the best part of the story, where I stopped speed reading and actually read properly) - Whilst M tries to investigate the case (terribly, and he is in some drivelled mess similar to this other babyfic I was reading where S ran away to San Fransico because of another pregnancy debaucle-- and he slept on the floor of her apartment for 2 weeks, waiting for some sign of here whereabouts *huge eye roll* I stopped reading at that part cause it was just.. bad writing and beyond OOC). It's currently unfinished and somehow has >300 kudos. *where's that vomit bag* ?
There's an original character, another agent added to the x-files team but his presence is merely a convenience more than anything and he's trotted out about three times in the story.
The story doesn't end with Scully being found, it continues through the aftermath of her kidnapping (in sappy detail) with a couple of very would have been hot scenes with a lot of emotion should I have been actually invested in the story - and instead was overall underwhelming.
The English itself, was fine. There were proper sentence structures and grammar (defiantly surpassing my own). The overall storyline, became bland and not relatable in all the sugar. I'm sure - based on the length/number of chapters, a lot of people enjoyed this story. However sugarly relationships, and overly descriptive details about what was clearly the author's impassioned cause (marriage for children) just isn't for me.
I'm impressed I finished the whole story. I read it because I felt like I could not review it if I did not read the whole thing through.
There were some good bits.
I liked Scully being in the bunker and trying to sympathise with the kidnapper and her figuring out how she would escape.
Maybe I should change that statement to "there was one good bit".
Score card:
Just not for me.
I wonder if I had read this story in my teens and what I thought of it then. It's quite possible that I have actually read this one before, but unlikely that I wrote about it anywhere.
